Entertainment

5 Ways Social Media Will Change Recorded History

History tends to remember only pivotal moments in time, discarding the day to day struggles. Even when the occasional diary survives, it only archives what one person does - it doesn't track his or her interactions with others. But with social media, that information is readily available and, furthermore, that information archives how we interact with others over time.

For the first time in human history, the day-to-day interactions between people are being permanently recorded and formatted in easily organizable segments of information. This has a plethora of consequences on how we record history, but here are the five big ways I see social media altering how we utilize and record history:

1) Everyone will have the ability to know what you did and who you were with on a daily basis.

What were you doing on July 14th, 2008? Unless it was your birthday, you probably don't know.

It may seem like an insignificant question, but 20 years from now, knowing what you did or who you were with during a certain day could be great for reminiscing about the good old times. Or maybe you're a researcher that needs to pinpoint the exact movement of a new virus. Or you'll want to prevent the election of a presidential candidate with embarrassing information.

When you tweet you're hanging out with @mashable or @ben_parr, you are not only making a statement to friends and followers, but you're writing down in history that on this date you were with these people. 20 years from now, you'll know who you hung out with from the day-after, because of hung over Facebook wall posts and tweets. This phenomenon will only get stronger as more people rely on social media services.

2) Historical trend analysis will leap to a new level of precision.

Let me give you an example. Let's say you're a researcher who wants to figure out the evolution of political ideology over an election cycle. What data could you work with from 1856 to 1860, when Lincoln was elected? Newspaper clippings, a few historical documents, speeches, but not enough information to really trend the triggers that altered political thought. Even if all of that data did exist, it would be hell to find it.

How about 2004 to 2008? There's a stark difference. We have Twitter, Facebook, blogs, websites, forums, and search habits. We can start to trend how search terms increased, what events triggered visceral reactions, and how people of both sides reacted to the political opinions of the day. The information is archived, easily organized, and a large stock of it is readily available to the public.

3) We will not use history to learn from our mistakes, but to prevent them before they happen.

Google's recent partnership with the government is an example of the prevention phenomenon in action. Google has been giving the Federal Government information on flu-related searches in order to track and contain epidemics before they begin (you can find the public version of the tool here). We can track the history and progression of the flu with stunning accuracy. In turn, we can use that data to prevent the outbreak of the next drug-resistant virus.

Yes, it raises certain ethical questions, but the point is still the same - it changes how we analyze and utilize history.

4) There is little room for hiding details about our lives.

Less than flattering pictures on Facebook have already disqualified tens of thousands of people from jobs. But when someone of the current teenage generation runs for President, what do you think will happen to every tweet or blog post they ever wrote? It will be analyzed and checked. Embellishing about your life story will be difficult, because we can go back and see if you were an angry person in your childhood or who your friends really were.

5) An ethical war over the use of this information will arise.

If the government can use search data to track disease, what else can they use it to track? Is it right to charge a political candidate with guilt by association just because they were Facebook friends with an eventual criminal? I can't even begin to imagine the ethical debates such detailed history may cause.

It's often said that history is recorded by the victors. Now history is recorded by computers and anybody can pick up that data and come to their own conclusion. The study of history will dramatically change as more and more people use and rely upon social media for daily interaction. No diary, history book, or recording can compare to the data available through social media. My belief is that social media may prove to be as pivotal as the printing press in the study of history.

Mashable
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